Dunglish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dunglish is a combination of Dutch and English, a name for Dutch English, the Dutch speaker's version of the English language. The languages are closely related Germanic languages, and the Dutch are taught English in elementary school. In addition, English spoken movies are not synchronized (dubbed) on Dutch television. However, many Dutch are worried that the overuse of English will lead to their language and eventually even their culture being phased out.

The Dutch word for the poorest form of Dunglish is Steenkolenengels ("Coal English"). This term goes back to the early twentieth century when Dutch port workers used a rudimentary form of English to communicate with the personnel of English coal ships.

Errors occur mainly in pronunciation, word order and the meaning of words. Former Dutch ambassador and Prime minister Dries van Agt once is supposed to have said "I can stand my little man" (ik kan mijn mannetje staan, a Dutch saying meaning roughly "I can stand up for myself"). Another example of inappropriate English was phrased by the former leader of the Dutch liberal party, Frits Bolkestein. When talking about economic prospects he kept referring to them as "Golden showers". In Dutch this phrase does not have this second, more dubious connotation.

Two American counterparts to Dunglish were once common: Jersey or Bergen County Dutch, a pidgin Dutch spoken in parts of New Jersey and a remnant of the days of Dutch possession of the area in the mid 17th century. In the Midwest, a separate pidgin Dutch was used by immigrants who came from the Netherlands in the 19th century, primarily in Western Michigan where the largest group of Dutch immigrants in the U.S. lived.

Jersey Dutch (meaning New Jersey, not Jersey) apparently had quite a long life despite the Dutch disappearing as colonizers early on, and was reputed to have lasted into the 20th century. Yankee Dutch persists to this day, with a few speakers still living, although the likelihood of the pidgin surviving much past the next five to ten years is unlikely. The persistence of both pidgins was attributed to the use of Dutch in church services. It was the anti-German sentiment of World War I that was probably the biggest force in the demise of both pidgins, as the language was mistaken for German by those from outside the communities where the pidgins were spoken.

1 Common errors
2 Worst Teacher Award
3 See also

[edit] Common errors

[edit] Incorrect meaning of words

Errors often occur because of the faux ami (false cognate) possibility: words are incorrectly translated for understandable reasons. Examples are:

Undertaker as a translation of ondernemer ("onder" meaning "under" and "nemer" meaning "taker") meaning entrepreneur, a mistake made by then prime-minister Joop den Uyl, who remarked that "the Dutch are a nation of undertakers".
Pocketbook as a translation of pocketboek (paperback), as in "I was reading a pocket book".
in Dutch the word 'realisation', besides meaning 'to comprehend', is also used to refer to the completion or execution of work (as in: 'making it real'). This could lead to the slightly misleading sentence: "They have realised the building." when meaning that the building has been constructed/completed, although it is mostly used in combination of abstract words, so these sentences would be more correct: "They have realised the construction of the building." or "They have realised the building project."
The verb solicit (soliciteren) in Dutch can also mean applying for a job, which can lead to very embarrassing situations when someone mentions they have come to solicit.
The interject hoor, literary listen but used without real meaning, is used at the end of a sentence and is pronounced similar to whore, leading to sentences like "I've already sent the letter to you, hoor." In this case the word hoor actually indicates the speaker is showing an indignation, caused by a previously made statement. It often also signifies that the sentence is an assurance. In this case the meaning of hoor could be interpreted as really but with a partially ironical or sarcastic connotation, for example "I've given him the money, really", which would be in Dutch: "Ik heb hem het geld gegeven, hoor."
The word eventueel in Dutch means possibly and not eventually, which would be uiteindelijk in Dutch. This mistake caused a row between the Scotish and Belgian football association when the Belgian football association invited delegates from various associations over for the "eventual qualification of the Belgian national football team" before the play-offs against Scotland started. While the Scottish federation accused the Belgians of sheer arrogance, the Belgian association would only hold the drink after a "possible qualification".

[edit] Word order

English and Dutch don't always follow the same word order. While English is an SVO language [Subject Verb Object], Dutch is a partly SVO and partly SOV language: in sentences with modal auxiliary verbs the perfect participle is placed at the end of the phrase, and in sub-clauses, the order gets reversed, see V2 word order. English, on the other hand, has a particular usage of creating periphrastic sentences with the word "do" (a rare feature cross-linguistically), something Dutch lacks, instead reversing to VSO in simple questions. However, many Dutch people make sentences in English with exactly the same word order as Dutch. This creates errors such as:

"I did that already yesterday" instead of "I already did that yesterday".
"What mean you?" instead of "What do you mean".

[edit] Verb conjugation

English and Dutch are both Germanic languages, some words/verbs are very similar and sometimes cause Dutch people to conjugate English verbs using Dutch grammar.

"We kisse(n) her." (kussen means to kiss in Dutch and in Dutch grammar the nominative case of a plural pronoun is equal to the infinitive which (in most cases) has an en-ending)
"What do you now? ("What are you doing?" is "Wat doe je nu?" in Dutch)

[edit] Errors in pronunciation

Words like Third and The are commonly mispronounced by the Dutch as Turd and Duh.
Many Dutchmen have trouble distinguishing between bat, bad, bet and bed.
Many Dutch tend to pronounce the u from tub as œ in French œuf or u in Dutch bus.
A lot of Dutchmen pronounce the word idea without the ending sound, making "Do you have an idea?" and "Do you have an ID?" sound the same.

[edit] Other examples

"Welcome in Amsterdam": Should be: "Welcome to Amsterdam" (in Dutch: "Welkom in Amsterdam")
"That can": Instead of: "that's possible", "sure" or "of course" (in Dutch: "Dat kan")
"Thank you for your reaction": Instead of: "Thank you for your reply" (in Dutch: "Bedankt voor uw reactie")
"I hate you all very welcome": Instead of: "I welcome you all" (in Dutch: "Ik heet U allen zeer welkom")
"They hardly worked....": Should be: "They have been working very well" (in Dutch: "Ze hebben hard gewerkt")
"Gas out of our bottom": Should be: "Gas from our soil/ground" (in Dutch: "Gas uit onze bodem")
"I learn you...": Should be "I will teach you..." (in Dutch: "Ik leer je...")
"I fok horses": Should be "I breed horses" (in Dutch: "Ik fok paarden")
"I first have to look the cat out of the tree.": Should be "I have to wait and see which way the cat jumps" (in Dutch: "Ik moet eerst de kat uit de boom kijken"); Arthur Numan to the British press after his transfer from PSV to Glasgow Rangers. (Supposedly)
"How late is it?": Should be "What time is it?" (in Dutch: "Hoe laat is het?").
"What is there on the hand?": Should be "What is going on?" (in Dutch: "Wat is er aan de hand?").
"Go your gang.": Should be "Do your thing" (in Dutch: "Ga je gang").
"Put your mobiles out.": Should be "Turn off your mobile phones" (in Dutch: "Zet je mobieltjes uit").
"I always make craft of the unit circle.": Should be "I always use the unit circle." (in Dutch: "Ik maak altijd gebruik van de eenheidscirkel").
"When I'm walking over this line...": Should be "When I'm following this line..." (with finger) (in Dutch: "Wanneer ik over deze lijn loop").
"I'm sitting on this line.": Should be "I am on this line [when pointing at a line]" (in Dutch: "Ik zit op deze lijn").
"I want you out of it.": (when sending someone out of the classroom)
"Are you shore of this?": Should be "Are you sure of this?" (confusion because of the pronunciation)

[edit] Jocular reverse use

One can also observe the opposite of Dunglish: the pseudo-stupid literal borrowing of English terms in Dutch. Usually, the speaker doing this will be well aware of his error and wanting to achieve a comical effect, somewhat like a pun. The most famous example of this may be:

"Worst-Kaas scenario": Refers to "worst case scenario" (literally: "sausage-cheese scenario"). This expression uses the Dutch words that most closely resemble their English counterparts. Amusingly, they are snacks, often served together alongside drinks (at a "borrel"), so that the term worst-kaas scenario may well be used to describe a situation in which snacks are or will have to be served. E.g. "If we continue to drink beers at this rate, this may well develop into a worst-kaas scenario..." - at which the addressed person should normally respond by ordering snacks without further ado.

[edit] Worst Teacher Award

There is an ongoing debate in many Dutch universities on whether, given the increasing number of foreign exchange students, classes should be taught in English rather than Dutch. A common counterargument is that a significant number of professors are not fluent enough to teach classes in English at a university level. In this light, the Student Union (VSSD) of Delft University of Technology has instated the "Worst Teacher Award", given yearly to the most heinous mistake in English made by a professor. Since 'worst' is the Dutch word for 'sausage', the prize awarded is a large sausage. Some examples:

Don't let them eat the cheese off your bread. (Jacques Berenbak): Dutch: Laat je de kaas niet van het brood eten.; Meaning: Don't lose your competitive edge.
You have to screw up the number.: Dutch: Je moet de waarde opschroeven.; Meaning: You have to increase the number.
This college goes over ramps.: Dutch: Dit college gaat over rampen.; Meaning: This lecture is about disasters.
I tried to lead you around the garden.: Dutch: Ik probeerde je om de tuin te leiden.; Meaning: I tried to deceive you.
I have an equation picked from the sky: Dutch: Ik heb een vergelijking uit de lucht gegrepen.; Meaning: I took a random equation.
You have to meet this with your lat: Dutch: Je moet dit meten met je lat.; Meaning : You have to measure this with your ruler.